u/Striking_Tax8524

I've been retired for a little while now, and I'm enjoying it. I have things I care about, projects I want to do, people I want to spend time with, and I'm certainly not sitting around waiting for the end.

But there's something in the background that I didn't really anticipate.

For most of my life there was always another stage ahead: school, work, relationships, career changes, plans for retirement. Now that I'm actually retired, I sometimes find myself thinking: This is the last major stage.

I don't necessarily mean that in a morbid way. It's more an awareness that the runway is finite in a way it didn't seem to be before. Even if I'm fortunate enough to have another 20 or 30 years, there probably isn't another great chapter after this one called "what comes next."

I'm curious whether other retired people feel this too.

Did retirement make you more conscious of the fact that you're in the later part of your life? Did that feeling fade with time, or become stronger? Has it changed what you care about, what you spend your time on, or what you're willing to put up with?

And maybe most of all: how do you hold that knowledge in your mind without letting it overshadow the life you're still living?

I'd especially be interested in hearing from people who've been retired for a number of years and can look back on how their thinking changed.

From what I’ve seen firsthand since retiring, there seems to be an interesting divide after the initial “this feels like a vacation” stage wears off.

Some people stay fully retired. They may travel, pursue hobbies, spend time with family, volunteer when they feel like it, and generally enjoy having very few obligations on the calendar.

Others eventually re-engage with something more structured: part-time work, consulting, teaching, volunteering, a business, a regular community activity, or some other commitment that puts a schedule back into their lives. Sometimes it’s for the money, but often it seems to be about purpose, community, identity, intellectual stimulation, or simply having somewhere to be.

I’m curious which way people here went.

Are you retired-retired, with no desire to return to anything resembling a regular job or scheduled commitment?

Or did retirement turn out to be more like a sabbatical, after which you found yourself wanting some kind of structured activity again?

If you did re-engage, what drew you back, and are you happier for having done it?

Recently went through a car buying experience. (I don't recommend it, at least not with traditional dealers!) But the whole thing made me reflect on how my attitude toward automobiles has enabled me to retire when I wanted to and with enough to be comfortable. I made a list:

Age 16: Chevrolet Nova. Free (from grandmother). Horrible car, always broken. But free.

Age 18: Honda Accord, $5700, purchased new. My only new car until recently.

Age 27-33: No car. Lived abroad where public transportation is more than enough.

Age 34: Toyotal Corolla. Used. 400 miles on the odometer. $12,000, I think.

Age 52: Toyota Camry. Bought from family after mother died. $12,000. 55k on the odometer. 21 year old car when I let it go.

Age 67: Toyota Camry, new. Cash purchase. My first "splurge" since age 18 when I bought the Accord, cash, from money I made playing music.

I ran the numbers recently. By buying (mostly) used and keeping cars until they died, I've probably saved a couple hundred thousand dollars in up-front costs, financing, insurance, taxes, etc., and by investing it the money instead, I was able to call the shots on my retirement.

I seem to be a unicorn, though, among car buyers these days. Am I alone? What's your story?

List the ways that you're aware of. There are many.

I've been thinking about this after two recent experiences.

In the U.S., I accepted an adjunct teaching assignment at a community college paying $45 per classroom hour. Preparation, grading, meetings, email, and administrative work were largely uncompensated. The college itself tells new instructors to expect one to two hours of preparation and grading for every hour in class. I ultimately withdrew.

At the same time, I've been looking at a full-time university teaching job in Germany. The pay and benefits are respectable, but the initial contract is limited to three years, even though much of the teaching appears to represent an ongoing institutional need.

These are very different jobs, but they seem to share the same underlying logic: the institution gets flexibility by shifting the cost onto the teacher--unpaid labor in one case, insecurity in the other.

What increasingly bothers me is the role of permanent faculty in accepting and perpetuating this system. I realize departments often don't control whether permanent positions are authorized. But when the same essential work is performed year after year by a succession of temporary people, do permanent faculty have some responsibility to push back?

At what point does "that's just how academia works" become complicity?

For those with tenure or permanent contracts: do you feel any responsibility for the conditions under which adjuncts and fixed-term colleagues in your department work?

I saw a considerate post recently that lamented that "universities are now a consumer product," with professors being the public-facing components. What do you think?

Does anyone calculate TCO? Car price, insurance, maintenance, energy or fuel. Etc. What’s your total monthly and or annual total cost of ownership?

Been reading around the net on this subject, and I've been alarmed at the number of retirees with a large percentage of their net worth in equities. Concerned because a prolonged bear market could really sting and reduce these retirees' quality of life. Haven't seen many threads on this topic here, so I thought I'd poll the group. What percentage of your portfolio is in stocks and which percentage in safe assets?

As I age, I find my ability to handle stress has diminished, and my
reaction times probably have as well. Both of those things make driving more nerve-wracking to me. I need a solution because I don't want to stay in the house all the time.

My partner has a Tesla and started using the self driving a year or so ago. I've used it as well, and it such a stress reliever to have the car drive that I am considering selling my car and switching.

Has anyone done this or considered doing it? What's your strategy for driving?

Having more choice than just Tesla service is important, I think.

Getting ready to pick up a HW4 vehicle. Have been using HW3 FSD 12.something for a while, and I can list many annoying or dangerous FSD behaviors (categories include potholes, manholes, speed bumps, last-second lane changes, failure to drive defensively, random stops, hesitations, one-way mishaps, etc.). What are the issues I need to be aware of with the current iterations?

When I’m driving, I swerve slightly for potholes, manholes, and other objects in the road to minimize damage to my car and to keep my ride smooth for me and my passengers. If FSD can’t do this, what’s the point? What else can’t it do?

Recent events have reminded me of the old adage: "when it rains, it pours." Car died, landscaping bills due, dishwasher died, chair died. On and on, actually, in the space of a couple of months. My retirement income is covered by guaranteed sources and modest tsp/401k withdrawals, but still: extra cash in money market or HYSA is necessary from time to time. I'm still working out the most comfortable amount, but it's looking like anywhere from $35k to $50k, which allows me to put the rest in the market without too much worry.

What's your strategy and why?

Lately I've been pestered to "confirm" my account every time I log on from one of my computers that I haven't used in a few days. Why this nonsense? I canceled because of this--and because I couldn't reach a real person to discuss. Just a goddamn "bot." I'm not paying to be frustrated. Goodbye.

What are your thoughts? Part of me likes the blue but the practical part of me says white exterior is more easily visible and therefore safer.

Was a loyal Toyota owner since college (50 years ago). Current Camry is 21 years old. End of life. Thought, "no problem, I'll get another Camry." Then I learned: the world has changed. Can no longer walk into Carmax and buy a new Toyota without the hassle of a traditional dealer. So that led me to go to a traditional dealer. Yuck! After half an hour of being passed around from dude to dude trying to get my business, I said, no way. I came in for a test drive and all I got was this fake niceness and BS upsells before I even got what I came for.

I'm not giving my business (or time) to this ridiculous sales practice in 2026. Went to Tesla, test drove (or the car drove me), and in an hour I had placed my order.

Toyota, you need to change your sales practices. A Toyota owner is a no-nonsense person who wants a car that works. That mindset is NOT compatible with going into an old-style dealership and putting up with nonsense before handing over your hard-earned cash.

I'm gettting old and, yes, much less forgiving of sharks wasting my precious time. Change.

Literally no other company that I interact with pesters me about a backup form of payment. What is this all about? So annoying.